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Tina Fey Remembers Jan Hooks in Touching Tribute

On Monday night, Tina Fey used her stage time at Elle’s Women in Hollywood Awards to remember Jan Hooks, her “idol” and Saturday Night Live forebearer who died earlier this month at the age of 57.

Specifically, she reminisced about how she came to cast Hooks on 30 Rock as Jenna Maroney’s mom.

“We needed to cast Jane Krakowski's estranged Florida dirtbag mother, and I thought, My God, do you think we could get Jan Hooks?” Fey recalled. “And the answer was like, 'Yeah, you can get her.' She was living in Woodstock. And the phone was not ringing.”

Hooks obviously agreed to guest star on the comedy, but Fey revealed that Hooks seemed a bit hesitant.

“She was actually a little shy about jumping back into the game,” Fey explained. “And she came down and she was so funny. We did a scene where Jenna and her mother are reunited [and they] sing their duet that they used to sing in pageants when Jenna was a child. And it was a mother and a daughter singing to each other, ‘Do that to me one more time . . . ’”

“And it was so funny and the crew was so mesmerized. It was all at once the most ridiculous and heartbreaking and beautiful [and] weird mother-daughter relationship,” she said. “And I'm so proud of it.”

Dedicating her award to “sweet Jan Hooks,” Fey also expressed anger that Hooks had not been better appreciated by Hollywood, especially in comparison with some of her Saturday Night Live castmates.

“It made me sad when she passed, and it made me mad at the time how available she was,” Fey said. “Jan should have had a bigger career. Jan deserved a big movie career. Certainly as big as Rob Schneider's fucking career. She was a bigger star on S.N.L."